While the hockey world waits to see which team will be the last member of the NHL’s final four, the Philadelphia Flyers are already looking to next season. CSN Philly’s Tim Panaccio passes along word from the team that Chris Pronger, Kris Versteeg and Michael Leighton had underwent surgeries today.
Pronger had a disk fragment removed from his back. He’ll begin walking rehab soon and will be able to begin core strengthening exercises in six weeks. Versteeg will begin rehab in 10 days after repairing abdominal tears. Leighton will begin his own rehab in a few days after repairing a torn labrum in his hip. This is the second consecutive off-season in which Pronger and Leighton received surgery of some kind.
Those three players aren’t the only Flyers expected to have surgery this summer. As we discussed before, Mike Richards, Andrej Meszaros and Blair Betts are almost certain to go under the knife for various ailments. Hip issues might also force Jeff Carter and Scott Hartnell to undergo surgery as well, although both Flyers are supposed to find out on Friday.
Perhaps the silver lining of getting bumped out of the playoffs more than a month earlier than last year is that players can use that extra time to recover from injuries. Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that Danny Briere, Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk were the Flyers who carried the torch for much of the playoffs, then. They might have been the healthiest big-minute players on the roster.